While there may not have been as much Magic happening this last weekend as there was the previous weekend, I still had my eyes glued to what little
information was making its way here from the Grand Prix in Paris.
Esper Dragons has slowly been tightening its chokehold on the format, and that has been bad news for me and my brood of Dragons, but with the format
shifting to combat Ojutai and Silumgar, it might just herald Atarka’s return.
There was not a single Esper Dragons deck to be seen in the Top 8 of GP Paris. With all the Den Protectors and Deathmist Raptors moving in and trying to
beat the control decks with resilient threats and absurd value, I’m not surprised to see this.
Abzan Aggro, Abzan Megamorph, and Red aggressive decks were the big winners from GP Paris, and I think that’s great news for G/R Dragons. The deck has
fallen off a little bit due to Esper being top dog for a while, but things tend to correct themselves, and everything that’s preying on control is fair
game. The common removal being played from these Abzan decks outside of Hero’s Downfall is Dromoka’s Command, Abzan Charm, and Valorous Stance. All three
of these just so happen to get blanked by Stormbreath Dragon.
I’ve said it before, but Stormbreath Dragon is rarely poorly positioned in Standard, and it’s just a matter of finding the right deck for it. Even with
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion making a comeback, I still think we can beat it. Haven of the Spirit Dragon and Dragonlord Atarka give us some real game against
cards like Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, and with less copies of Wild Slash seeing play outside of the Red decks, Ashcloud Phoenix just keeps getting better and
better.
Recently, Ari Lax has been talking about how Elvish Mystic is
the best way to steal back the initiative when you are on the draw, and I definitely agree. However, I’m not convinced that the Megamorph or Collected
Company strategy is the best way to go. The cards in those decks do have great synergy, but I think that the raw power of the cards available in G/R
Dragons can make up for it.
Now we just have to decide what direction we want to go with the deck.
I know that I want to be on the following:
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Thunderbreak Regent
4 Stormbreath Dragon
From there, though, we have plenty of options. I think that we want to run another mana accelerant, and the best two options are Rattleclaw Mystic and
Sylvan Caryatid.
This is the key point in building the deck because they take us in vastly different directions. If we go with Sylvan Caryatid, then we are setting up a
bigger game; not longer, but bigger. We don’t really want the game to go long since we have these Sylvan Caryatids in our deck as bad topdecks, but we want
to ensure that we are going to hit four, five, and seven mana with as much consistency as possible. This is the reason that the Sylvan Caryatid builds tend
to also want Courser of Kruphix. It’s good at filtering our draws and helping ensure that we hit our land drops so that we can start dropping Thunderbreak
Regent, Stormbreath Dragon, Xenagos, the Reveler, Dragonlord Atarka, and activating monstrous on our Stormbreath Dragon.
This route can make us a bit slower in the first couple turns without a two-drop that can attack, but it helps to ensure that our mana accelerant doesn’t
get killed and put us further off ramping. The big trade-off is that while it may be worse against the control decks, it is vastly superior against the red
aggressive decks. Being able to block a Zurgo Bellstriker is a pretty great feeling.
If we go the Rattleclaw Mystic route, then we have some flexibility on being able to get aggressive with our mana accelerants when we have an anemic draw.
Attacking for two with our ramp creature can be quite valuable against the control decks, but since it is vulnerable to removal, it can also be a
liability. A lot of games are won or lost simply by being able to cast our spells. Thunderbreak Regent and Stormbreath Dragon do such a good job of
finishing the game, but we have to actually get them onto the battlefield. Rattleclaw Mystic also has some added synergy with Deathmist Raptor. Alongside
Ashcloud Phoenix and potentially Den Protector, this gives us a pretty robust morph engine.
The big issue in my mind with going back to my Syracuse build of G/R
Dragons is that there are a lot more copies of Dromoka’s Command seeing play now than there were back then, which has the potential to make Courser of
Kruphix a liability. What if we went with Den Protector?
Den Protector is obviously a very strong Magic card, and the Abzan Control decks are showing us that you don’t have to play it alongside Deathmist Raptor
for it to be awesome. Just like Eternal Witness could do everything from rebuying other Witnesses to threats, cheap interactive spells, or even lands, Den
Protector can do the same thing here. Losing the value that can be gained off Courser of Kruphix is a bit rough, but I really like going with Den
Protector. In fact, there might even be a build where we can play both.
Creatures (25)
- 4 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 4 Stormbreath Dragon
- 3 Courser of Kruphix
- 1 Ashcloud Phoenix
- 2 Dragonlord Atarka
- 4 Thunderbreak Regent
- 3 Den Protector
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (23)
Spells (9)
I could potentially see making the Ashcloud Phoenix another land to go back up to 24, but I think we’re probably fine as is with the Coursers and Den
Protectors. Going this route gives us all the strengths that we had previously, but with an added mid and lategame with Den Protector. Letting us rebuy
threats like Stormbreath Dragon against the decks that can’t beat it or our interactive spells like Draconic Roar or Crater’s Claws to just burn our
opponent out. Hell, even getting back a Xenagos, the Reveler against the control decks seems real sweet.
Den Protector also gives us an evasive two-drop that we can just jam on turn 2 when we need to. Getting in damage or even trading with a Foundry Street
Denizen is no joke.
The sideboard has some interesting ones, but I’d like to start with Hornet Nest. With Abzan Aggro and Red-based Aggressive decks being two of the most
popular decks right now, I’ve decided to go up to three Hornet Nest. Goblin Heelcutter is really the only effective card that Mono-Red can have against it,
and it is secretly one of the best sideboard cards against Abzan Aggro. Bile Blight kills it or the bees that you make off it, but what else does Bile
Blight do against us? Can they afford to have it in their deck?
I’ve also decided to give Rending Volley a try. It kills a Dragonlord Ojutai while it’s attacking, which is really nice, but it also has applications
elsewhere:
That’s quite an impressive list of creatures that it hits, which makes me think it’s worth trying out. It could be that it ends up as a one-of and we want
another Magma Spray, but I want to try two Rending Volley this week while I’m testing.
This weekend the Open Series goes to Dallas for some sweet Standard action, and while I won’t be there battling, I will be playing in some IQs in the area
here, so I will be all about some Standard. There is a good chance that I just end up on Abzan Aggro since it’s likely the best deck in the format, and I
have access to BBD and his expertise with all things Anafenza, but I’m going to be giving this new take on G/R Dragons a try to see what I can make out of
it.
I do have some sweet news about the next weekend though. I will be making the trip up to Worcester for the 20K Legacy Open. I’ve only been to Worcester
once, and it was miserable. I got ninth on tiebreakers in the Legacy Open, which caused us to have to stick around and then drive the twelve hours back
home in the middle of the night and then work basically as soon as we got back to Roanoke at 10AM. BBD is a saint for making that whole drive himself while
I slept, but thankfully with the new system, we will likely get out of there at a reasonable time even if one of us takes the whole thing down.
What to play in Legacy though, that’s another question. I honestly don’t know!
Going over the recent Premier IQs from the last few weeks of Opens, I am seeing a whole bunch of Miracles, which is a great deck, but I have little to no
experience with it.
I’ve actually played Miracles in two events. Both times I got paired against Joe Lossett. I am 0-1-1 against Joe in the Miracles mirror.
Again, I do have access to BBD here, so I might just entice him to teach me the ways of the Divining Top with plates of Pulled Pork and packets of Crystal
Light, but I’ve always been a Show and Tell kind of guy, and Omni-Tell has been tearing it up overseas in GPs and even here in the states in the Premier
IQs.
I actually really like Shouta Yasooka’s list from GP Kyoto where he made the Top 8.
Creatures (2)
Lands (18)
Spells (40)
Very streamlined, Shouta is focused on piecing together his combo with early cantrips and then finding protection with Dig Through Time before going off;
or maybe it’s the other way around. Who knows?!
I really like this style of Show and Tell deck. I was a big fan of the explosive “all-in” nature of Sneak and Show, but by removing the Lotus Petals we get
to fit more cantrips into our deck that go hand-in-hand with the Digs that are now much better with the removal of some of the “Sol Lands” in Ancient Tomb
and City of Traitors. We still see a couple City of Traitors here since being able to Show and Tell on turn 2 against decks without blue is pretty
important, but since we aren’t overloading on them, we get to run a full set of Dig Through Times.
The Young Pyromancer out of the sideboard is something that I’ve always wanted to do with Sneak and Show but haven’t really been able to. With Lotus Petal
and all the Sol Lands making chaining spells together tough, it’s never really been a great plan for that deck. Here, however, Young Pyromancer looks
absolutely great. Cards like Swords to Plowshares and Lightning Bolt are bad against us, and cards like Spell Pierce and Flusterstorm are good against us.
This common sideboard transition works out favorably for us when we can land an early Young Pyromancer and ride it to victory. Also, you get to use the
sweetest tokens that SCG has ever produced (in my obviously biased opinion).
Even though I’m leaning towards Shouta’s Omni-Tell deck, I would like your help in figuring out what Legacy deck I should work on for Worcester. All of the
decks listed in the poll are decks that I would (probably) be happy playing if picked, so make your voice heard and vote!